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Natioal Crochet month

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

I have the honor of being the last blogger for the crochet
month of March.You have the honor of
reading my first ever blog!Since the
topic is crochet I think I’ll share with you how much crochet means to me.

I first taught myself to crochet
(over 50 years ago) when a cousin moved out of state and gave me an unfinished
granny square afghan.Not wanting to
waste yarn I taught myself to crochet and finished the afghan and I was hooked!
(Pun intended!)I was just starting
motherhood and over the years my five children had many crocheted items to wear
and play with.I have lost count of how
many afghans I’ve made, but a few years
ago I went out of state to help a daughter with her kids when she was having
health issues.One day I opened the
linen closet and saw LOTS of afghans.At
first I didn’t recognize them but then realized I had made them all and she certainly
didn’t need any more!The same goes for
my other children!

Like lots of crocheters after I
was comfortable doing crochet I started playing with published patterns to make
them to my ideas-longer, shorter or even a different stitch.I entered several magazine crochet contests
and actually was a finalist.I’d see designs in publications and realized
that they were very much like ones I had designed. That awakened a desire in me
to be published but was too timid to do so.

Fast forward to 1993.I saw an announcement in a crochet
publication (can’t remember which one) that someone named Gwen Blakley Kinsler
was trying to organize a national crochet guild.She was organizing a conference in Chicago at
DePaul University that next summer.Was
I excited!My kids were on their own by that time so I was able to afford to
go.What an experience!I took classes and met people who’s names I
had seen in publications as designers. I
was rubbing shoulders with the crochet world elite!!!

This was the chance to become a founding
member of the Crochet Guild of America.Well
I’ve attended each summer conference since then and besides taking LOTS of
classes I’ve had the opportunity to meet with publishers and have been
published in various books and magazines.If not for the CGOA I never would have found the courage to approach
publishers with my designs.I now have
crochet friends all over the US as well as Canada, Ireland, England and
Australia.I’ve even had the
opportunity of going to Ireland on a crochet tour.

I’ve also helped to found the
Ididachain Crochet Guild in Alaska.We
are now 16 years old.Several of us met
on the internet at Crochet Partners and that was the start of our guild.

To sum all this up, crochet and
CGOA has given me the opportunity to grow both as a person and of course as a
crocheter.Thank you God for crochet!!!

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CGOA Now! is the place to find book reviews, the latest news and information about CGOA, and general items of interest from the crochet community. The content of the blog is overseen by the Board of Directors and Chain Link editor Kim Guzman.